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The purpose of the Urban Task Force was to ‘…identify causes of urban decline and establish a vision for cities in England, founded on the principles of design excellence, social well-being and environmental responsibility...’ (ref The Urban Renaissance six years on, Richard Rogers). The Task Force included members from industry, academia, local and regionalgovernment. They confronted the challenges posed by the decline of the inner-cities, the need for 4 million additional households and the perceive blight of suburban sprawl which was swallowing greenfield land.

More than 100 recommendations were made, suggesting that cities should be more sustainable, better designed, more compact, better connected and should support a wider range of diverse uses. This would require strengthened democratic local leadership, increased public participation and greater investment in urban areas.

The key themes and measures described in the executive summary to the report were:

In November 2005, the UTF published The Urban Renaissance six years on an ‘…independent report based on the personal experience of Urban Task Force members on the ground, designed to stimulate public debate and encourage new thinking’. It noted that there had been some successes in the six years since publication of the original report, but that new issues had emerged and many problems remained, including; continued migration of the middle classes to the suburbs, poor transport provision and a lack of housingsupply.